JISC TechDis Backs Another Winner

Overview

To the delight of both The University of Nottingham and JISC TechDis, Xerte Online Toolkits has scooped first prize at the IMS Global Learning Impact Awards 2010 in California.

For the second year running, the top award went to a team that JISC TechDis has been closely working with and supporting. The University of Nottingham’s learning team invited Alistair McNaught from JISC TechDis to accompany them to present Xerte Online Toolkits to the judges at the IMS Global Learning Consortium in Los Angeles.

The Platinum award was one of only two presented for new and R&D initiatives - the other went to the BBC for their accessibility toolbar

This prestigious award recognises outstanding applications of technology that address the most significant challenges facing the global education and training industries. Alistair said; “This is fantastic news and affirms our long held belief that we were backing a winner! The award demonstrates the importance of supporting teaching and learning by mainstreaming accessibility through developments like Xerte. The fact that both Platinum winners were British and had accessibility at their core says a lot for the maturity of accessibility practice in the UK.”

Traditional learning resources depend heavily on text, but text-heavy content often creates accessibility barriers for many learners. Xerte is an Open Source content creation tool that allows non-technical staff to quickly and easily build rich, interactive and engaging resources with high levels of accessibility already built in.

JISC TechDis has worked closely with the University of Nottingham to help evolve their product from an HE based development platform to a popular teaching tool used extensively across a number of sectors.

The key to Xerte Online Toolkits is simplicity and ease of use: “Anyone can use them,” explains Learning Team Leader, Andy Beggan at The University of Nottingham. “They’re designed specifically so that even the least technically minded people can create absolutely stunning content.

“To date, the Xerte Online Toolkits have been used by governments and NGOs in Africa, mainstream further and higher education, in-house employer training and Adult community learning.”

An important factor that has contributed to the success of Xerte as a highly accessible, low cost solution, has been the forging of partnerships by JISC TechDis with key stakeholders. These include the Higher Education Academy Subject Centres, RSCs, NIACE and LSIS, and have helped to drive developments forward by encouraging sector wide engagement from the initial TechDis template to the current 40 templates developed by the Nottingham team.

As well as helping to promote Xerte through its network of accredited trainers and associates, JISC TechDis has supported its use by producing a series of high quality tutorial guides, a free online ‘sandbox’ to enable users to experiment and test their learning objects and by running monthly online training sessions for teaching staff and developers.